What Does Deuteronomy 2:12 Mean?
The Horim also settled in Seir in former days; but the children of Esau drove them out, and destroyed them from before them, and settled in their place; as Israel did to the land of his possession, which the LORD gave to them.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
The Horims also dwelt in Seir beforetime; but the children of Esau succeeded them, when they had destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their stead; as Israel did unto the land of his possession, which the LORD gave unto them.THE KEY
The same Hebrew root names both Esau’s taking of Seir and Israel’s received inheritance, so possession carries the trace of dispossession.
THE MEANING
This verse holds two realities together for you now: a people settles by removing those already there, and its own possession is named as a gift from the LORD. The word for possessing also carries the sense of dispossessing, so inheritance contains the trace of the people removed. Calling it a gift does not make that violence disappear from the sentence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that a sacred inheritance is untouched by the people forced out of their place: this verse names the destruction and the gift together.
THE ROOT
יָרַשׁ
yārash
GROWS FROM
ירשׁ
y-r-sh
To take possession, inherit, or dispossess.
“drove them out” in this verse is yārash. The Hebrew behind “succeeded” belongs to the same root as “possession.” Its branches hold receiving an inheritance and taking a place from someone else together; the verse keeps that displacement inside the language of possession.
ALSO GROWS
yārash: To inherit, take possession, or dispossess.
יָרַשׁ
This is the word behind Esau’s taking the Horites’ place.
yerushah: Inheritance or possession.
יְרֻשָּׁה
This is the related word for the land Israel receives, linking its possession to the same root.
נָתַן
natan
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
To give, set, or place.
“gave” in this verse is natan. The verse calls Israel’s possession something the LORD gives, placing divine gift beside the account of destruction and replacement. The word’s branches carry the sense of giving and placing, but the sentence leaves the violence of possession visible.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
This is the verb naming the LORD as giver of the land.
mattanah: A gift or present.
מַתָּנָה
This related word from the same root makes the language of giving concrete, while the verse retains the account of displacement.
THE PATTERN
Scripture can name a land as divine inheritance while also naming the displacement through which it is possessed.
And he gave them the lands of nations, and they took hold of the toil of the peoples.Which also our fathers, having brought it in, took hold of in turn with Jesus, into the holding of the nations, whom God thrust out before the face of our fathers, until the days of David.THE THREAD
And he gave them the lands of nations, and they took hold of the toil of the peoples.Psalm’s “inherited” comes from ירשׁ (yārash), the same root behind Deuteronomy’s “succeeded” and “possession.” The shared root holds taking over and receiving inheritance in one word-family, keeping the displacement audible in the language of what is possessed.
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